“Eighteen individuals received a total of € 672,000” Money has been secured to pay experts attached to the Gozo court , according to Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici. A fund of € 42,000 was sourced this week to settle outstanding bills after court cases were held up when experts refused to submit their reports. Dr Bonnici said talks between the Justice Secretariat and the Gozo Ministry this week led to a temporary solution that would mean all bills submitted by the end of last year would be paid. “We will also start paying the bills relating to 2013, but this is a very short- term solution to address the acute problem resulting from years of inaction by the previous Administration on this issue,” he said. The matter was brought to public attention by Times of Malta yesterday after it highlighted a comment made i n passing by the judiciary in their reaction to a court reform commission’s report. The payment backlog and the resulting boycott were causing long delays in cases that required expert reports to proceed. Dr Bonnici confirmed that the oldest pending bill went back to 2011 and this would be paid by the extra funds. He denied there were bills dating back to 2007, as claimed by one expert who spoke to this newspaper. The parliamentary secretary said payments started being processed from the date the report was sworn under oath by the expert. Around € 80,000 a year is spent on court experts in Gozo. Taking into account Malta as well the total figure balloons to an average of € 1 million. Dr Bonnici noted that 18 individuals received a total of € 672,000, three quarters of the annual expenditure on court experts. The Malta and Gozo courts use the services of 220 experts every year, including 100 translators. With 3,500 expert interventions carried out annually, the cost averages at €256 each. Figures broken down by area of expertise show technical experts, legal specialists and DNA analysis account for 57 per cent of yearly expenditure. Dr Bonnici said it was an “absolute shame” t hat t he previous Administration let the matter grow into “a substantial problem” without tackling t he core issues. A report commissioned by then Justice Minister Austin Gatt more than 10 years ago was put aside and things were left “practically untouched”, he added. Dr Bonnici said the reform commission, headed by former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello, had taken note of the report in its proposals for reforming the field of court of experts. “The current Administration is keen to grab the bull by i ts horns and tackle the issue of financial sustainability while making sure that the judicial process is not adversely affected,” Dr Bonnici said.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 06:43:11 +0000
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